First District candidate Vernon Anastasio lost another round in his battle to remain on the ballot. Anastasio was in Commonwealth Court, the appeals court for election matters, on Tuesday, appealing the March 25 ruling of Common Pleas Court Judge Pamela Pryor Dembe, who removed him from the ballot because he failed to disclose his 2002 income on his financial statement form.

Anastasio arrived in court with members of Local 98, Washington Square West activist Ruthanne Madway and other supporters.

Commonwealth Court Judges Rochelle Friedman and Charles Mirarchi and President Judge James Colins upheld Judge Dembe's ruling that failing to file financial information is considered a "fatal defect" to the candidate's nominating petitions and therefore the petitions should be set aside.

Sarah DeRose, a resident of the First District who challenged Anastasio in Common Pleas Court, objected to his financial statement.

The financial statement, which is required by the Pennsylvania Ethics Act of a candidate for public office, accompanies the candidate's nominating petitions. Both were due March 11.

On his statement, Anastasio said he received no income last year when, in fact, he did. He worked part of the year for the city and the rest of the year for State Rep. Babette Josephs. He resigned in February to run for the Council seat.

Anastasio admitted he made a mistake in filing the form and quickly filed a revised form with the Department of Records. When he attempted to file that same form with City Commissioner Marge Tartaglione's office, he was refused.

Anastasio believes incumbent First District Councilman Frank DiCicco is behind DeRose's challenge and that Judge Dembe was biased in her decision because of her political alliances. He appealed to the Commonwealth Court and hired heavy-hitting attorney and former Republican mayoral candidate George Bochetto (who is representing me in an unrelated matter).

In his opening remarks before the Court, Bochetto argued that Anastasio had no fraudulent intentions when he filed and that he quickly corrected his error. He added that Anastasio's amended financial form should be accepted and that Anastasio did disclose his occupation, he just put it in the wrong place on the form.

"If he cannot read the form, then I question his ability to be a councilman," said Judge Friedman.

DeRose, who was not in court, was represented by attorneys Ralph Teti and Sharon Suleta.

Teti argued that Anastasio's failure to file in accordance with the law violates the state's Ethics Act and therefore is a fatal defect.

Bochetto argued that Anastasio was ethical, he made a mistake and to strike his petition would be wrong. "Let the voters decide," said Bochetto.

Teti responded that these objections were not made in the last case, so therefore could not be raised now.

Judge Friedman disagreed and said that one of Anastasio's previous attorneys, Thomas Quinn, had made an issue of DeRose's standing in Common Pleas Court.

Anastasio said he intends to appeal the new ruling. He now must petition the State Supreme Court to hear his case; appeals are not automatically heard by the high court.

All these appeals are getting expensive. Anastasio said it was his decision to hire Bochetto, who is not doing pro-bono work.

Is Local 98 picking up the tab? Electrician's Union Local 98 Business Manager John Dougherty supports Anastasio.

"John Dougherty is not picking up the tab," said Larry Ceisler, spokesperson for the union and for Dougherty. "John supports good candidates like Vern. The campaign must be paying for George [Bochetto]."

When told of the Court's ruling, Ceisler said, "It's unfair. A legislator should look at this form. It is a confusing form and Vern lost on a minor technical difficulty."

Suleta said "no comment" when asked who was paying her. Teti could not be reached for comment by press time.

The Commonwealth Court's ruling only continues to fuel the fire between Dougherty and DiCicco.

Dougherty and State Sen. Vincent Fumo are not chums, and Local 98 has been making it difficult for DiCicco, an ally of Fumo.

Austin Powers, Beware

David P. Yarkin is back. Yarkin was Gov. Rendell’s press secretary while Rendell was mayor and later when Rendell was chair of the Democratic National Committee. Yarkin then left to become project developer for the New York City school system. He is now back in the Rendell administration as the deputy secretary of General Services.

Known fondly as "Mini-Me" to his former City Hall colleagues, Yarkin will head up the Procurement Department in his new capacity.